LOGINGRACE'S POV We got married on a Saturday in my backyard with thirty people watching. Small and intimate and nothing like our first wedding that had been all performance. This time everything was real. August and James were ring bearers, five years old and serious about their responsibilities. Li
CARTER'S POV Hope went to the NICU for observation because she was early. Standard protocol for thirty-five weekers the doctors said. Grace was exhausted but stable and I sat with her while nurses worked on our daughter in the next room. "I want to see her." Grace was trying to sit up. "Carter,
GRACE'S POV I called Carter Sunday morning with my conditions. "I read your letter five times. I believe you know me. But Carter, knowing someone and staying with someone are different things." I was sitting on my porch while the twins played inside with my mom. "I need you to prove you'll stay
CARTER'S POV I spent three days writing the letter. Not because I couldn't think of things to say but because I kept deleting what I wrote. Kept falling into old patterns of what sounded good instead of what was true. Dr. Chen told me to stop performing and just write honestly about why I loved Gr
CARTER'S POV The full reality hit me about thirty seconds after Grace told me. I was going to be a father again. Was going to have another chance at the beginning I'd missed with August and James. Was going to be there from the first moment if Grace let me. I sat down hard in her office chair be
GRACE'S POV I'd been nauseous for a week. Blamed it on stress from the press conferences and therapy and trying to figure out if Carter and I were actually doing this. My mom noticed first. "Grace, you look green. When did you last eat?" She was watching me push food around my plate at Sunday di
Leaving the city. Leaving New York, the place I'd built my entire adult life, where everything I'd accomplished was concentrated. Starting over somewhere else as what? A cautionary tale? A disgraced financier? A man who'd bet on his marriage and lost everything? I walked to the window, looked out a
GRACE'S POV The house in Cannon Beach closed on a Friday and I moved in that same day with my three suitcases and a determination to start over that felt more like desperation. The furniture wouldn't arrive until Monday, so I spent the weekend sleeping on an air mattress in what would eventually be
"No." I said it firmly even though part of me understood. "You don't get to be there for the milestones while skipping all the hard parts. You don't get to show up for a sonogram when you weren't here for the nausea and the fear and the complete upheaval of my entire life." "Okay. I understand. I'm
CARTER'S POV Grace signed the papers on a Thursday and by Friday afternoon I'd convinced myself everything was back to normal. The divorce was finalized, the settlement was paid, and she'd disappeared completely—deactivated all her social media, changed her phone number, left no forwarding address







